


Trimming the Tree

by ericsonclan



Series: OG World [67]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, F/F, F/M, Family Feels, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:20:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28054521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ericsonclan/pseuds/ericsonclan
Summary: Omar loses a bet with Louis and has to fulfill Louis' unique idea for Christmas decorating.
Relationships: Clementine/Louis (Walking Dead: Done Running), Prisha/Violet (Walking Dead: Done Running)
Series: OG World [67]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1815361
Kudos: 6





	Trimming the Tree

**Author's Note:**

> (by Laura)

“Alright, everyone, I have an announcement to make,” Louis stood in front of the picnic table, his hands proudly pulling upon the collar of his coat. “I’m sure everyone remembers the bet I placed with Omar back in October, the one where he said there was no way I could bag five rabbits singlehandedly for us in one day and I _did_.”

“I remember the bet,” Omar replied calmly, setting aside his stew bowl. “It’s one I’ve begun to dread considering the fact that you still haven’t called in that favor you won from me,”

“Well fear no more, Omar, for today is the day I call upon you for that favor,” Louis declared, a cheeky grin on his face.

A frown pulled at Ruby’s lips as she looked up at Louis. “Now I know I don’t have to tell you not to choose anything stupid. And by stupid I mean dangerous,”

Louis raised his hands in self-defense. “Why, sweet Ruby, I would never! What I have in mind for Omar isn’t dangerous at all. For you see, the favor I am asking for is that Omar be a tree,”

Clementine’s brow quirked at that line. “A tree? What do you have up your sleeve, Lou?”

“Only a deck of cards, my dear,” Louis replied with a wink.

Omar looked unimpressed. “You want me to be a tree. What does that involve, standing completely still for an entire day?”

“Ah ah ah, not just any tree, Omar,” Louis lifted a finger. “You see, the tree I want you to become is… a Christmas tree,”

That got a reaction out of the kids. None of them had had a Christmas tree for Christmas since before the world ended. There were pine trees that grew in the forest, but they were a great distance away and most were far too large to carry. The one year obtaining a Christmas tree had been attempted back when they were young teens, they’d almost lost a kid in the process. Having a human stand in for the Christmas tree was an interesting prospect to say the least.

Omar crossed his arms, eyeing Louis evenly. “And what exactly will I be doing as a Christmas tree?”

“Why being decorated of course!” Louis quipped. “There’s a box full of decorations in the basement that the school used to use. You’ll stand in place in the music room and the rest of us will dance around you and put decorations all over your clothes and hair,”

“You know,” Aasim cut in, “There’s a perfectly reasonable alternative to this which is building some sort of artificial tree ourselves. I think-”

But Aasim had already lost the attention of the others before he started. Most of them were quite excited at the idea of decorating Omar, the little boys already abuzz with ideas and inspiration. Omar looked rather conflicted at the thought of being a stand-in for a tree but upon seeing the joy in A.J. and Willy’s faces his expression softened and he gave Louis an approving nod.

“It has been decided!” Louis declared, dramatically drumming upon the table. “Tomorrow we shall convene to decorate the music room _and_ Omar!”

\---

The next day after all the chores had been completed everyone gathered in the music room to begin decorating. Prisha, Violet, Willy and Ruby had grabbed the decorations from the basement while A.J., Clementine and Louis had gathered together all the paper and craft supplies they could carry in order to make even more decorations. Omar and Aasim tidied up the music room in order to prepare it for its Christmas transformation.

Once they were all gathered and had everything ready, Omar took his place at the center of the room, standing in as the tree. Ruby put one of the few Christmas records they had on the gramophone. “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree” began to play and everyone bopped their heads softly to the music.

Louis rooted through one of the boxes of decorations, clearly looking for something in particular. “What better way to start our decorating than with… tinsel!” The dreadlocked boy threw the silver strands into the air with a happy cry watching in glee as they came to rest all over Omar’s afro. A.J. immediately followed Louis’ lead, grabbing his own handful of tinsel and throwing it directly in Omar’s face.

“Not the face, goofball,” Clementine instructed, coming over to join them by the boxes. Fishing inside the nearest one, she grabbed a simple ball ornament and stepped forward, gently dangling it from Omar’s ear.

That seemed to be the signal everyone had needed to really get started. Violet and Prisha grabbed a length of garland made from red tinsel and began to circle Omar with it, smiling at each other as they did so. Willy had gone crazy with the ornaments, trying to place them on any possible place they could stay: Omar’s other ear, his nose, each one of his fingers. He wanted to take off Omar’s shoes to decorate his toes too, but Aasim put a stop to that.

The Indian boy had been working mostly with Ruby on other ways in which they could decorate the room for Christmas. Colored candle holders filled the room just as they had the night of the hootenanny, but now paper snowflakes had been added to the mix, decorating the walls and being scattered across the top of Louis’ piano. Paper chains crafted by Clementine and decorated by A.J. also did their part to brighten up the room as well as joining the garlands wrapped round and round Omar’s form.

Omar tried his best to stay still, a soft smile on his face as he watched his friends get into the Christmas spirit. Blowing a stray piece of tinsel away that was tickling his nose, he looked over at Louis who was in the mist of trying to make a paper crown as a “tree topper”. “You know, Louis, if this was your plan all along, shouldn’t you have made the bet with someone taller, say, Aasim or Prisha?

Louis smiled, looking up from his cutting. “If that had been my plan from the beginning, then certainly. But it wasn’t. I just made that bet on a whim and inspiration didn’t strike till later. But boy, when it did, I just knew I had to make this happen. You may not be the tallest tree, but you’ve certainly brought our Christmas to life,”

The boys looked around the room together, smiling at all the joy that was present there. There hadn’t been a true Christmas celebrated here in quite some time. Last year they’d been in the midst of healing from the Delta attack with Clementine and Violet still recovering from their injuries. The year before, well, they hadn’t known it at the time, but Marlon had been too busy hiding the truth about what happened with the twins for any Christmas celebrations to happen at all. And even the years before that the kids had all been so focused on survival, just barely scraping by each winter, that it had never felt like Christmas was something worth celebrating. Now things were different though. Things were peaceful, they were safe, and the reintroduction of the greenhouse and the additions of a vegetable garden and rabbit hutch meant they had quite a bit of food stored up for winter. For the first time in a long time they were all happy, really truly happy.

Eventually the decorations had all been used, the room was fully decorated, and Omar was covered from head to toe in tinsel, ornaments and garlands. The kids took a step back, admiring their work proudly.

“Great job, team,” Louis declared, tugging on his collar once more. “Before we call it a night though, there’s one more surprise for everybody. Well, everybody but me and A.J. that is. You ready, buddy?”

“You know it!” A.J. ran over to Louis’ side, bouncing excitedly. “Is it time to tell the secret now? Can I, can I, can I?”

“Just a second, little man,” Louis chuckled, fondly ruffling the boy’s afro. “How ‘bout we show instead of tell them?”

“Right!” A.J.’s eyes lit up with joy and he rocketed out of the room, Louis close behind him. It took a few minutes, but soon the others could hear the pair’s footsteps shuffling back towards the room. Louis backed through the door with A.J., both boys carrying something within their arms. It only took a moment for everyone to recognize what it was.

“A tree!” Willy shouted, his mouth wide open in awe. “A real live Christmas tree!”

It was indeed a Christmas tree, but a much smaller one than the full-grown pines that grew so far away from them. It was about A.J.’s height and had been placed inside a large planter which the pair now placed upon the floor.

“That’s right,” Louis smiled proudly. “This was the source of my inspiration: a pint-sized Christmas tree we can plant and grow in our very own yard!”

Everyone oohed and ahhed at the tree, stepping forward to get a closer look and touch the tiny branches for themselves.

“Louis and I found the tree a few days ago,” A.J. explained, standing beside the tree. “But when we found it, Louis told me we should keep it a secret, a scallion secret,” he raised a finger to his lips and looked at Clementine with a smile. Clementine returned the gesture, happy to hear the Disco Broccoli line from him.

“Wait a minute,” Aasim raised an eyebrow. “If you already had the tree, then why did you convince Omar to stand in as a fake tree instead?”

“Because this is our outdoor tree. Omar served as our indoor tree – duh,” Louis said dismissively in a way that caused Aasim to roll his eyes. “Although once we have this little beauty planted, we can probably transfer some of Omar’s decorations over to it,”

“You expect me to stand still like this for the rest of the day?” Omar asked evenly.

Louis thought on the question for a moment. “Well, per the rules of the bet I could require you to uphold the favor for the entirety of the day as I originally stated, but in the spirit of Christmas I will graciously declare the favor fulfilled,”

“Wonderful,” Omar immediately reached up to remove the ornament from his nose then got started on taking off the rest of the decorations. The others helped him until only the paper crown and a few stray strands of tinsel lay upon his head. Omar knelt down and picked up the box that had been refilled with the decorations once used to adorn him. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s plant this tree,”

“The party continues outside!” Louis crowed, moving to pick up the tree once more. “C’mon everybody, let’s head outside!” With that he was off, A.J. scurrying alongside and helping hold up a corner of the tree. Everyone else followed closely behind, their conversations picking up once more as they left the decorated music room behind and headed toward the outdoors. Christmas wasn’t contained in just one room; it was all around them.


End file.
